your words
by drowningsun
Summary: Feliciano has been waiting to hear the words tattooed over his heart since he understood what the word "soulmate" meant. GerIta. "Soulmate's first words" AU.


**I decided I wanted to try my hand at a "soul mate au" and since I couldn't find a Gerita one...Well, here goes.**

**So, pairings are Gerita, Romada and Pruhun with mentions of UsUk and Frain. Also this is the first draft. Uh, you're probably thinking "What the hell ya doin posting a first draft?" but I never usually finish stuff so I thought I'd better. If you have any advice I'm all ears. Oh, and sorry for the craptastic formatting but I used the document thing and I don't know how to work that or computers in general, so yeah. **

_**age twelve**_

Feliciano stared at the first words his soulmate would ever say to him; they were tattooed across his heart, just like everyone else's, and they had been since before he was born. He traced the letters with his thumb. "Steady," he whispered. "Rigid." The letters were large and narrow. Steady, rigid. And yet..."Shy. They have an inferiority complex." The letters seemed curved inwards in an almost sad, lonely way. He smiled softly at the words, which were colored a soft, golden yellow. "Kind. Almost unbearably kind and gentle. Tender." He covered the words completely with his hand and whispered, "Don't worry. I'll protect you. Always, always." The words still had just barely left his lips when his twin brother burst into the bathroom and stopped short. "Feli!" He shrieked exasperatedly. "What...what...You're not even _dressed properly_!" Feliciano grinned at him absently. "Sorry, Romano, I was learning my soulmate." Romano shook his head in bewilderment. "Ah...What?" Feli shrugged as he grabbed his shirt from where he'd placed it on the towel rack. "Well, Alfred said he'd known what his soulmate was gonna be like forever, that he could tell by the words." Romano spluttered indignantly. "That _idiot_ didn't know anything, he met Arthur when he was _five._ You must be stupid if you're listening to that American." Feliciano grinned and shrugged again. "Yeah, I guess," he said and left to shouts of "Don't _agree_ with me you idiot! It just makes you even _more stupid!_"

_**age sixteen**_

Romano found his soulmate about a week after their sixteenth birthday. The boy's name was Matthew, and it turned out he was Alfred's cousin. He was small and fragile with close shorn hair and they'd never met him because he had lung cancer. His life expectancy was between two and five years. People (and by people he meant parents, teachers) pitied Romano, whispered behind his back saying that he had got the bad end of the deal. Feliciano watched the gentle, loving way his twin treated Matthew and knew they were all wrong. After all, they hadn't seen it, that strange, quiet happiness that settled over Romano when he'd finally met the person that would love him even as he took his last breath. Feliciano knew that that was something Romano had always feared, had felt it, jittering under his skin, heard it in the restlessness of his sharp, broken words. Feliciano slid his fingers over the words on his chest and laughed. _"Not even my hapless brother could forget an umbrella on a day like this." _His soulmate wasn't very good with words; after all, a simple "I noticed you don't have an umbrella, do you want to share mine?" would have worked. But then, of course, the person wouldn't be the soulmate Feliciano had gotten to know through these words. Steady, rigid. They're shy, and they don't think much of themselves. And yet, they're always kind and gentle, tender. Feliciano sighed as he traced the words over and over again. He wasn't, you know, jealous of his brother or anything. He was just a little lonely. Until the day Romano met Matthew, Feliciano had been the closest person to him. If he was honest with himself, he really, really missed that.

**age twenty-one**

Around his twenty-first year Feliciano started standing out in the rain regardless of what day it was. In fact he missed so many days at uni that his Foreign Literature professor, a kind, boisterous man by the name of Antonio Carriedo, pulled him aside. "Feliciano," he said with an unusually firm voice, "I need to know why you've been missing my class so often. Do you not like it? If this is so then I must admit I am quite disappointed. You are quite a good student and I've grown rather fond of you." Feliciano flapped his hands as if clearing away the words and grinned. "No, no, Professor Antonio, I enjoy your class _very _much!" Antonio frowned. "Then what is it? Are you sick? Is it your family? If it is anything I can help you with, I certainly will." Feliciano shook his head and studied his feet. "I'm just...waiting." He glanced up quickly and saw a soft understanding in his professor's eyes. He had only just met his own soulmate, an eccentric and artistic man name Francis, and Feliciano supposed that Antonio knew even more about waiting than he did. They never discussed it again and his professor always helped him catch up on anything he was behind in after that.

A month after his conversation with Antonio, Feliciano woke to the biggest rain storm he'd ever seen in his life. _Today, today, today _thrummed in his veins and settled on his skin. He rushed downstairs and out the door, barely remembering to dress in his excitement. When he dashed out the door he gasped because _wow that was a lot of rain and it actually kind of hurt and he couldn't really see anymore because his eyelashes were filled with rain_ before taking a deep breath, blinking rapidly and stepping out into the street. He waits for hours, and though people notice him (of course they do, he's a crazy, grinning man standing in the pouring rain without an umbrella) no one moves towards him; in fact, they avoid him. He waits so long the sun hides behind the towering building and a soft gloom drifts over the city. He waits so long he almost decides that he isn't _going _to meet his soulmate today, or ever, because he's never seen rain like this before and he really, really doubts he ever will again, but it keeps _raining and raining_ and he keeps waiting. He's sort of drifted off, eyes glazed, day dreaming about God knows what, and so he almost misses the gruff voice that says the words he's been waiting to hear for almost forever. "Not even my hapless brother could forget an umbrella on a day like this." The voice comes from his left and he spins around, gaping at the tall, broad-shouldered man with a barely noticeable slump to his back and carefully kept blond hair, and eyes like sea glass. He's blushing, his eyes averted and he holds out a dull, green umbrella. Feliciano leaps at the man wrapping his arms tightly around him and his soulmate grunts in surprise. "I missed you," he whispers against the man's neck, and he feels him stiffen before he wraps his thick arms around him, taking a deep breath. "What's your name," he says and his voice is soft, trembling. Feliciano steps back to get a better look at him. "I'm Feliciano." His soulmate nods. "Right. Right. Ah, we should get you inside, is there a store, or, where do you live, is it close, I-" and then Feliciano bursts out laughing because his soulmate is almost exactly as he imagined him to be. "I live in the apartment behind us." His soulmate gapes at him, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "Then what-what were you _doing_?" Feliciano beams up at him. "Waiting."

**age twenty-three**

Ludwig tugged at Feliciano's tie as they waited outside his brother's apartment. "Ludwig," Feliciano said softly as he batted away his hands. "Sorry, it's just...They're kind of weird, ok. My brother and his wife." Feliciano laughed, settling his hand on Ludwig's shoulder. "Yes, you've said. I'm sure I'll love them." Ludwig sighed. "Ah, yes, but..." Before he could continue the door was flung open and an albino man was standing before them, grinning manically. "Little bro! Man it's been way too long! Where you been? Hiding? I bet you were! My awesomeness is way too much for you to handle, eh?" He pulled Ludwig into a headlock while Ludwig struggled and stuttered. Feliciano chuckled and shook his head as he watched them tussle until a young, pretty woman with long, wavy brown hair shoved her way through the doorway. "Gilbert! Gilbert, stop this immediately! Behave yourself!" Gilbert broke away from his brother and frowned at her. "Yeah, whatever, _mom_," he muttered as he trudged back into their home. She rolled her eyes at him and turned back to Ludwig, grinning. "Sorry about that. He's just excited." Ludwig shrugged, and coughed. "This is Feliciano." He nodded towards him and his sister-in-law's eyes latched on him immediately. "Your soulmate?" She whispered softly, and Ludwig nodded, grinning a bit. She dashed forward, seizing him in bear hug. "We've waited so long! We were a little worried, you know. Ah, right, my name is Elizabeta." Feliciano grinned and hugged her back. "I was waiting too."


End file.
